Silence in the Workplace: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine the antecedents and consequences of organizational silence and employee silence to determine whether these two concepts should be distinguished and used differently in research instead of being used interchangeably. We conducted a systematic literature review of 28 articles on organizational silence and 42 articles on employee silence. Our analysis illuminates three major findings. First, the definitions and measurements show that organizational silence is a collective level phenomenon and employee silence is considered at the individual level, thus they should be distinguished as two different concepts. Second, both organizational silence and employee silence are influenced by contextual factors (internal and external) and leadership. Third, organizational silence has an impact on both individual and organizational levels; and employee silence mainly affects an individual's psychological health and performance. This research provides more clarification about how organizational silence and employee silence should be understood and used by researchers. In addition, it highlights the need for addressing this critical workplace phenomenon and reveals the damage it may cause to organizational and individual health if ignored. Furthermore, this research will help advance the efforts of organizational leaders and human resource developers toward promoting a healthy work culture, desired performance, and continuous improvement.